Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 36
Aiden couldn’t bring himself to answer affirmatively.
He felt the weight of her desire to be with him in any way possible, and it tore at his heart.
Pushing aside his anguish, he raised a practical objection as if grasping at an excuse.
“Tania, I’m a mercenary. I can’t become a knight of the Duke’s Household.”
“But what if I could? What if I found a way to make you my personal guard knight?”
Aiden studied Tania quietly.
He couldn’t fathom what schemes that small head was concocting.
Yet she had survived abandonment in the Monster-Filled Forest.
This clever child had entered the Talent Cultivation Institute alone and even secured a place as the Duke’s adopted daughter—surely she had something planned.
In truth, the matter of how he would join the Duke’s Household as a knight wasn’t the real problem.
Duke Papiope’s Household prioritized ability over status.
He had absolute confidence in his swordsmanship—he would yield to no one.
Aiden’s real concern was whether he could openly remain by Tania’s side.
Whether he could avoid being discovered by “that person.”
“Hah…”
Aiden let out a hollow laugh.
The bitter irony gnawed at him—he possessed the strength to cut down “that person” without hesitation, yet he couldn’t bring himself to kill.
All he truly desired was an ordinary life with his daughter.
Why had it become so impossibly difficult?
“Tania, I…”
I cannot be with you.
The words he couldn’t finish tumbled through his mouth like grains of sand.
Then Tania buried her face against his neck and confessed in a trembling voice.
“Sir, I’m actually terrified. What if the succession struggle puts my life in danger? What if they send assassins to kill me? What if they use Abilities to eliminate me without a trace?”
The succession struggle.
An unforeseen variable that threatened the child’s safety.
“…Won’t you protect me?”
Her tearful plea struck him like a hammer, leaving his mind reeling.
Aiden’s resolve not to be with the child crumbled like a sandcastle.
What father in this world could refuse when his daughter begged him to keep her safe?
“…Yes.”
Aiden dropped to one knee right there.
“If that’s what you wish, I will always protect your safety from the closest place beside you.”
Tania.
I will be your unbreakable shield.
I will protect you.
With my last breath, I swear it.

✦ ✦ ✦
Seven years ago.
It was an evening when rain pattered softly against the windows.
Aiden received an urgent telegram and rushed off to somewhere in haste.
When he arrived, a familiar woman sat quietly on an old bed.
Only an Old Woman kept vigil beside her.
A dimly lit lamp cast its glow upon the woman’s exhausted face.
With features as though she had died and been resurrected, Aiden’s pupils trembled faintly.
If she had left, she might have lived well—but what was this pitiful state?
The woman who had abandoned Aiden without a word or explanation did not even greet him with a simple inquiry about his wellbeing when they met again.
She merely showed him something wrapped in white cloth, as though she had been waiting.
“Aiden, our child.”
Only then did Aiden comprehend the identity of the white bundle the woman held.
A torrent of conflicting emotions washed over him.
He had never imagined that while she was away from him, she would be carrying a child.
He did not ask why she had not informed him despite bearing his child.
He could surmise the reasons well enough.
“I only discovered I was pregnant after I left you.”
“….”
“At first, I intended not to tell you. I simply hoped you would forget me and live on.”
“Then why come now and reveal that this is my child?”
“He seems to have noticed that the child is yours.”
In that instant, Aiden’s face contorted in anguish.
It was the very reason the two of them had been forced to part.
“Now that he knows the child is yours, I cannot raise him. He will kill our child.”
The woman continued, her voice trembling as though the mere thought was unbearable.
“I cannot flee somewhere with the child either. My face is known to society, and if he truly searches, it is only a matter of time before I am discovered.”
She placed the child she had been cradling into Aiden’s arms.
“So Aiden, I entrust the child to you.”
He fell into a moment of deliberation.
No matter that the child shared his blood, he had only just learned of its existence today.
Could he truly love this child?
Yet ultimately, he resolved to raise the child.
Perhaps it was because he recalled his father’s dying wish—that he should never father children.
Aiden’s Father had always spoken of this since he was young.
Never to have children.
It had felt unjust, and yet he had been curious.
His younger brother was fine—why was he forbidden?
It was only later that he learned the truth: he had been born of a different mother.
His biological mother was an Ability User of tremendous power.
To a degree that made me understand why my father had harbored such concerns.
Yet understanding my father’s worry did not mean I forgave him.
If he was so worried, then why had he brought me into this world in the first place?
It was nothing short of contradictory.
Aiden lifted the child into his trembling arms.
The child, unaware that the person holding her had changed, slept soundly with soft, rhythmic breaths.
The infant he had received was so impossibly small that it seemed unbelievable she was a living being at all.
Only the faint flutter of her heartbeat made him realize she was truly alive.
Her face was swollen and wrinkled as if she had only just been born, undeniably homely.
Yet the moment he held her, the world seemed to turn upside down.
She bore little resemblance to him—only eyes, nose, and mouth were shared—but he knew instinctively.
She was his child.
After all, if she were not his own, there would have been no reason for her mother to give birth in such a secluded place in secret.
Aiden was overwhelmed by the sensation that he could do anything for this child.
It was an emotion he could scarcely believe—that mere minutes ago, he had not even known of her existence.
The woman wept sorrowfully as she watched the child nestled peacefully in Aiden’s embrace.
The despair of knowing she would never see her child again.
And the guilt of entrusting the child to her estranged lover as though passing off a burden.
Even knowing that Aiden would have to live a life of perpetual flight, the cruel reality that she had no choice but to leave the child with him tormented her.
“…I’m sorry, Aiden.”
Aiden gazed down at the woman with emotionless eyes.
From the moment she had abandoned him, he had closed his heart.
To feel pity for someone who had become a stranger was a luxury he could not afford.
No matter how unavoidable the circumstances, from the moment she placed the child in his hands, she had committed an unforgivable sin.
“What is the child’s name?”
“…I haven’t given her one yet. I don’t feel I have the right.”
“I will name the child. You are to forget entirely that you ever gave birth to her.”
“Aiden…”
“That is what is best for the child.”
With those words, Aiden turned away without hesitation and left.
He held the child tenderly in his arms as he departed.
From that day forward, I abandoned everything to protect my child.
I left the Mercenary Company I had built with my own hands and settled in a small Rural Village with no connections to my past.
At first, everything was difficult.
The child cried incessantly and demanded my constant attention.
Yet I experienced days happier than any I had lived before.
I learned to smile from her, and I learned what it meant to share love.
Only after three months did I finally name her Tania, after a rare variety of red geranium.
The red geranium’s flower language is: “With you, love exists.”
A profound love and affection I would never have known without my daughter.
For Aiden, this was tantamount to admitting that his daughter had become the center of his entire existence.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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